On the other side of the spectrum, there are countries where homosexuality is less acceptable, or not acceptable at all. Those countries include Nigeria (1%), Pakistan (2%), Tunisia (2%), Ghana (3%), Egypt (3%), Jordan (3%), Indonesia (3%), and Senegal (3%) to name a few.

To date, 12 states have already legalized same-sex marriage: Massachusetts (first state to do so in 2003), Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington state, Maine, and Iowa. The District of Columbia also legalized gay marriage. Additionally, 8 states have certain legal provisions and civil unions for gay couples: California, Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, and Wisconsin.

Several states are still against same-sex marriage, and 29 of them amended their constitutions to ban it.

Literacy rate is defined as the number of people 15 years or older who can read and write. According to a study published by the Oxford Internet Institute at University of Oxford, global literacy rate is 82%. While the literacy rate for men is 87%, the rate for women is 77%.

Looking at data per continent, we find that countries in the Americas are highly literate, 99% for both men and women in the United States, and 97% for both men and women in Argentina. European countries show high literacy rates as well, above 91% for both men and women.

Many nations in Asia also show high literacy rates, except for countries like India, certain neighboring countries and countries in the Middle East, where the literacy rates are even lower for women.

Most African countries have very low literacy rates, with few exceptions: South Africa, Lesotho, Kenya, and Namibia.

The Economist compiled a visualization of the highest consumption of selected spirits worldwide. The selected spirits include vodka, rum, scotch whiskey, gin, and tequila.

The largest consumer of vodka is Russia, followed by the United States, Ukraine, Poland among others. The largest consumer of rum is India, followed by the United States, Philippines, and Cuba. The largest consumers of scotch whiskey, gin, and tequila are France, Philippines, and the United States respectively.

The Pew Research Center released today the results of its assessment of global restrictions on religion. A team of researchers combed through multiple sources of information to record concrete reports about government policies and actions, as well as specific incidents of religious violence or intolerance by social groups. One of the outcomes of the study is the thematic map shown above, which displays the level of government restrictions on religion as of December of 2011. The level is represented by the darkness of the color. The darker the color, the higher the level of government restrictions. The map shows that the Middle East and North Africa have many countries where governments restrict religion. Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Iran top the list of countries with very high government restrictions. China, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Russia also stand out due to the policies and actions of their governments.

The United States provides 60% of the funding to fight the AIDS epidemic worldwide. The highest recipients of this funding are African nations. Other countries include Bolivia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Burma, Cambodia, and Vietnam.

Latin America depends on these funds to fight AIDS too. Latin American nations are recipients of up to 24% of funding from the US along with Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Bulgaria, Thailand, and Indonesia.

The United States increased its funding to fight AIDS globally ten years ago. But, to qualify for funding, NGO’s had to enforce an explicit policy against prostitution. Female sex workers are 13.5 times more likely to have contracted the HIV virus, but because of the enforced anti-prostitution policy, female sex workers do not qualify to receive treatment.

This visualization by The Nation shows the rate of HIV infection among sex workers around the world. The highest rates of HIV infection are in Africa, with Swaziland at an staggering 70%.

Child labor is a serious problem that affects children all around the world. The International Labor Organization (ILO) defines child labor as “work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development.” According to ILO, an approximate 215 million children around the world are working. Out of this number, 115 million are thought to be doing dangerous work in hazardous conditions. An estimated 150 million children between ages 5 and 14 are subjected to child labor globally.

According to the Child Labor Index for 2012 published by risk analysis company Maplecroft, countries with the highest risk of child labor violations include Myanmar, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Russia, India, and China among a group of 76 countries.

Outdoor air pollution kills more than a million people every year globally. This map by the World Health Organization (WHO) shows the number of deaths caused by urban air pollution (UAP) per 1,000 people.

Based on data for 2002, the highest number of deaths caused by UAP occurred in Argentina and Uruguay in the Americas; Ukraine, Romania and Bulgaria in Europe; Iraq, Turkey, and Azerbaijan in Asia.